A Taste of Tito Puente

By

Will Friedwald

May 15, 2013 5:36 p.m. ET

Latin-American jazz is still very much with us in the 21st century, and much of the credit for its survival belongs to
Tito Puente
(1923-2000). His success at revolutionizing the genre as a percussionist, bandleader, composer and orchestrator is documented in "Quatro—The Definitive Collection," a lavishly packaged five-CD boxed set from Sony Music Latin.

When Puente became a bandleader in 1949, the basic foundation of modern Afro-Cuban jazz had already been laid by such pioneers as Dizzy Gillespie,
Chano Pozo
and Machito. Puente's contribution was to redesign the mambo for the nuclear age. As a master of all forms of percussion—from the North American "traps" drum set to the timbales (his signature instrument) and the vibraphone—he was a rhythm giant who could drive a band with both his playing and his charisma. No less important, as a thoroughly schooled arranger, he knew the value of tonal color. It might have been the beat that caught the listener's ear—and feet—but it was Puente's impeccable understanding of tonal variety, of constantly changing the orchestral colors, that held the listener's attention.

ENLARGE

One of the most recorded bandleaders—in any genre—of all time.
Corbis

Thanks to Puente's experiments in color, tempo, nuance and shading, the mambo became a staple of the LP era. From 1956 to 1960, RCA released a classic series of more than 10 albums by Puente, four of which have been remastered and put together in "Quatro."

Among the four is "Dance Mania" (1958), probably Puente's single most celebrated album. It's not just his skills as a master musician that made him such an astute maestro but his common sense as an observer of people. He knew what it would take to keep the dancers dancing and the listeners listening. A medium number would be followed by a very fast and loud one with lots of brass, then a slow, romantic bolero. Then he would vary the picture by featuring a solo vocalist or a choir, or by spotlighting himself on vibraphone. On "Dance Mania" he superimposes the mambo on the old Charleston favorite "The Varsity Drag," and uses Chinoiserie effects on "Hong Kong Mambo," an East-West dish that reminds me of the cuisine served in the Cuban-Chinese restaurants that proliferated in New York in the 1970s.

Of the other three albums in "Quatro," "Cuban Carnival" (1956) was Puente's first album for a major mainstream label and broke new ground in showing that Cuban dance music could sustain audience attention, whether moving or sitting for a full 36 minutes—in fact, any longer than that would test a dancer's endurance. The brilliant "Night Beat" (1957) represented the most fully realized blend of Afro-Latin dance rhythms and North American jazz that had yet been attempted. "Revolving Bandstand" is an oddball stereo meeting of two full bands, Puente's and trombonist Buddy Morrow's Orchestra. Recorded in 1960 but not released until 1974, it is a delight, if not quite a classic, since Puente had already recorded a more exciting team-up with
Woody Herman
two years earlier. The fifth disc is 28 minutes of "bonus" tracks, alternate takes and the like.

The package includes a beautifully illustrated booklet with a stunning array of photos and other visual paraphernalia. But although "Quatro" contains at least three of the best Latin jazz albums ever, and concentrates on what might be described as Puente's greatest period, it's a stretch to call this set "definitive": There are no tracks featuring
Celia Cruz,
Puente's most celebrated collaborator and the most imposing vocalist in all of Cuban music; further, Puente's "Oye Como Va," the composition that defined Latin-American crossover music for multiple generations, is not included. "Quatro" covers only a four-year span of a 50-year-career; the discography in
Joe Conzo's
"Mamblo Diablo" lists fully 162 albums, making Puente one of the most recorded bandleaders—in any genre—of all time.

Puente's music was both generous and ambitious; the programming on this set is neither. The longest CD here is only 38 minutes. A more tightly organized six-CD set could have easily encapsulated all of Puente's RCA recordings. It's best to view this package as a starting point rather than a final destination; dozens of Puente albums are available in all formats, and it's hard to think of a bad one.

Gillespie once compared the invention of Afro-Cuban jazz to "the joy of the man who first discovered fire." It was Tito Puente who kept that flame burning longer and more brilliantly than anyone.

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